MovieChat Forums > Street Thief (2007) Discussion > More questions than answers (*SPOILERS*)

More questions than answers (*SPOILERS*)


Why did Kasper allow filmmakers to film him committing crimes in the first place?
Perhaps because he was using the filmmakers: he wanted the cops to see it. This might imply that his death was faked, or at least that he was planning some other way of pushing the filmmakers to turn in the footage as evidence. If so, why? To fake his own death? That surely wasn't necessary, since he had a low profile already---the cops didn't know who he was. If it was fake, then there had to be a payload among the misinformation: the evidence of the crimes themselves?

(Come to that, why would the filmmakers incriminate themselves by creating video evidence of themselves aiding and abetting burglaries: To me this is where the plot requires the biggest suspension-of-disbelief, that they could even be that stupid.)

Why rob Slick's?
If the purpose of the exercise is to fake Kasper's death, then this puts a motive (Uschev's revenge) on record.

Was Slick's a fake job (i.e. done with Uschev's knowledge)?
If so, what does Uschev get out of any of this? Was he the prime mover of all of this? His refusal to talk tells us nothing: he was clearly a dodgy mafia type who would not have had dealings with the police, insurance companies or documentary makers, regardless of whether he was guilty or innocent of this particular matter.

Why did the Slick's job have to be done in such an uncharacteristic hurry?
If Slick's was done for the benefit of the camera, and even if it was fake, why not make it look good on camera, like the other jobs?

Why did Kasper not want the camera to see the money at Slick's?
It wasn't that he was unhappy with them filming him doing the job per se---he was apparently fine with that (and under the framing-Uschev-for-his-own-death hypothesis, he would have *needed* them to film it). Only the money shot bothered him. Perhaps because it was a small amount, which he realized might make it obvious to the filmmakers/cops that it was not the sort of job he would have usually bothered with. Of course, we were already suspicious of this from the fact that the job was so obviously rushed, but Kasper might have thought he covered that up plausibly enough.

Why the two-month hiatus after Slick's, followed by willingness to let them film the Cinemark job?
Waiting for the hunting season to get some blood? Or was the camera supposed to see something: something which it failed to see at Slick's, and which took a while to set up for it to see in Cinemark?

Did Larry get out of prison earlier than his projected 3 years? If so, how?
Perhaps it was something to do with the cases that were cleared up when police received the Kasper Karr evidence. This might in turn suggest that the motive for staging the whole thing was to get Larry out. But if so, how did that work? Was the timing (the two-month delay) crucial to this in some way? Larry told a story about convicts who had their loot hidden somewhere outside, waiting for them. Did that apply to him?

Did Kasper Karr die?
The replaying of selected quotes at the end is clearly meant to make us think not. First there was "you were getting too close"---to what? Then there's "I'm two steps ahead of you", and the bit where he said he could have been anything (a plumber, a doctor, etc.) and that when it's time to be something else, he'd be ready to move on. This last quote might even suggest he was never really a burglar, but rather a character only created for the camera, for the purposes of the con (although if so, how did he get so skilled and professional at burglary?)
The hunting scenes might have been included to suggest a source for blood to be used in faking his death. This does imply incompetence on the part of the police, and although that is pretty much how the police are portrayed throughout the film, would Kaspar really have gambled on their not testing it? One must surely assume by default that blood at a crime scene would be tested for a DNA match with known individuals.
If Uschev did kill him, why hide the body but leave the blood? Either he would leave the body to be found, thereby broadcasting the message that he's not to be crossed, or he would remove all the evidence. Blood but no body points to a faked death.

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I agree with you - but a few things that also need to be mentioned. You seem rather unsure of your conclusion (Kaspar faked his own death), but I think it is absolutely a fact.

Kaspar was so careful, did so much planning, had so much knowledge and ability to anticipate the future. Think of the scene where he cuts through the wall to avoid the door security scanner, his methodical collection and analysis of thrown-out documents, his patience in watching places for hours... this is not someone impulsive or sloppy.

Now, given the fact that Kaspar is so careful and methodical, all of his actions should be understood in that context. So when we are shown Kaspar doing a "sloppy" job in raiding the nightclub on short notice, we should take a step back and try and understand this in the context of his character.

We know Kaspar - the character - is a good actor. He effortlessly does Hindi accents, Spanish accents, plays a bumbling idiot at the supermarket (where's de bathroom bro?), goes undercover in disguises without any problem. Yet why do we think he's being 100% honest with the documentarians?

Why would someone so methodical, so careful, so content to keep a low profile, invite some film makers to document his criminal activities? What was the end goal? When was the film going to be released? When the statute of limitations on every one of his burglaries expired? When he died? Why did he do this?

Kaspar is very full of himself, yet simultaneously likes solitude, likes his lonely life. He says that exact phrase in one of the scenes when he's driving around (it's the one with the hot dog and the fries). He goes hunting, and says he's out there for the quiet and to be around nature. Interesting.

Was Kaspar's final robbery the first time he had hit a cinema? Why didn't he think about robbing a cinema at some point in the past? Did he never go to one?

Kaspar planned his faked death FROM THE BEGINNING, the robbery of the night club was probably planned out before he and the filmmakers even met. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks his overreaction in the nightclub upon seeing the money was bizarre and unjustified. What was he expecting to find in there? Johnnie Walker Blue Label? Why'd he bring them along if he was just going to spaz out when they found some cash?

He acted out because, like you hinted, it was part of the act. He needed to convince the film makers that he had stumbled into something dangerous, something he wasn't prepared to handle. This was essential to making his faked death believable.

Then he disappears for a few months. Was he laying low? Or maybe out in a faraway location setting up a safe house, stashing away money and laying the foundation for a new life? Hmm.

Then he disappears, for good, literally three days after his biggest job yet. What a coincidence. Was he shot? Was the guy who is so careful, the first thing he tells the documentary makers when they get in his car is "lock the doors", who runs from a job the second he hears on the police scanner that he tripped a silent alarm, was this guy ambushed at his safe house? Picture everything you've seen Kaspar doing. What seems more likely, he gets ambushed by some Russian mobsters, or he methodically and technically fakes the whole bloody car situation himself? Think of him making his disguises, assembling his tools, etc. Can't you effortlessly picture him faking the bloody car scene in the same way?

Why did the mobsters, if they killed him, take his body? Does that make any sense? You're absolutely right in bringing this up.

I might not have 100% of the story right (I barely consider the guy the film makers interview in prison), but Kaspar absolutely planned something, planned to fake his own death. Could be he wanted to disappear to a foreign country with a nice little stash of cash, but also was too vain to end his career without telling everyone what he did. Could also have something to do wit getting the guy in prison out a bit early. But the idea that Kaspar died is so 2-bit.

One might say that Kaspar's decision to have his antics filmed proved he wasn't that careful or smart. Yet the fact that he is careful and smart is 100% evident in the way he plans and executes his jobs. Therefore, you are forced to ask, given that he is careful and smart, why did he decide to have himself filmed?

P.S.: Near the end, the film makers say that the footage they gave to the cops allowed investigators to solve something like a hundred unsolved burglaries. So Kaspar, I think, was obviously a professional thief, not a character invented for the film makers.

P.P.S.: If he did use deer's blood for the car, he might have actually assumed it would be tested and shown to be animal blood. The cops, like you say, are a shamble of bureaucratic inefficiency. Kasper likely knew this, and knew that even if they found that the blood was not human, he would already be long gone by that point - and also would get the added prestige of having successfully, if only temporarily, faked his own death. He may have been too vain to permit the idea that he was killed, as opposed to a mastermind who engineered his retirement from the profession.

P.P.P.S.: The only compelling hypothesis that includes Kaspar dying is that Kaspar freaked out when he found the money because of what it implied - the fact that someone left money sitting unguarded in a desk drawer means they probably did not fear being robbed, which made Kaspar nervous; and the reason Kaspar's body was never found was because he was abducted by the Russians after being wounded, so he could be tortured into giving up where his cash was. But I don't by this because it was stated that the blood patterns in the car were consistent with someone suffering injury to the head and upper body - and if you planned on abducting someone and extracting information, why would you inflict potentially fatal damage to their head and upper body? Kaspar also constantly assessed risks in casing places. Would he mindlessly rob a nightclub with criminal connections without fully assessing the risk? Would he willingly rob a criminal organization at all? Why stick around, even after laying low, if his discovery in the nightclub made him so fearful? Doesn't add up. But I'd be willing to hear someone elaborate on this hypothesis nonetheless.

The fact that so many different analyses are possible speaks to what a good movie this is.

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